Collared
by PrairieSquid
Summary: Outlander Kaoru is on the run from Kanryu, who enslaved her for power. Kenshin lends a hand and takes her in, but can he protect her from his own faction who want to use her power to aid them as well as Kanryu? AU fantasy, will be some OOC but as little as possible. BKxK.


Hello again everyone! This is another new story and is a fantasy AU! I've been working on this when I'm not working on HeroHeroine. I really hope you enjoy this one as much as the first one (I've gotten 8 reviews so far for HH, isn't that awesome!? I'm so excited that people are reading!). Please feel free to leave a review and/or comment, especially constructive criticism. I'm an English professor's kid (and my Dad is an archaeologist, how cool is that!), and so though my grammar/spelling/punctuation is pretty good, I don't have a beta reader and may have missed some things here and there. If you don't want to review, don't worry about it. I'm not one of those authors that beg for reviews or hold a story/chapter hostage until I get the number of reviews I want. I won't lie and say that reviews aren't important to me, but I don't write for reviews-does that make sense?

Anyway, I'll stop babbling and let you get to it! Please enjoy and leave a review if you'd like. I hope you like it!

All Standard Disclaimers Apply (ASDA, which is how I'll be declaiming things in forthcoming chapters^.^)!

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The hot sun beat down on her, turning the heavy black cloak and ugly gray wool dress into an oven. She had been running since the sun had gone down the night before. Her captors had foolishly loosened her Collar while she was outside picking some herbs for the cook. True, she had been a slave for so long, they thought that they'd truly broken her…but they were wrong. Kaoru was a Daughter of the House of Kamiya and she would never be broken. Glancing behind her, she didn't see Kanryu's men and slowed her swift pace to a leisurely walk to try and regain her breath. The town she had only seen glimpses of was growing closer and closer as she walked down the road. Kaoru tried to control the sudden burst of apprehension that boiled in her gut.

_Maybe someone will help me there, _she thought optimistically, before her more cautious nature reasserted itself. _The town is too close to Kanryu's holdings, the town people with probably be loyal to him._ Her smooth face pulled into a frown. _Besides, unless I try to pass myself off as a blind beggar, they'll know what I am in an instant, I cannot hide or change my eyes._

Outlanders is Lieft were very rare, as they tended to be reclusive and traded as little as possible with Lieft and the surrounding nations. They were well known for their blue eyes and strange, powerful magics. Because they so rarely left their homeland, many people in Lieft had never seen an Outlander with their own eyes, but all children were raised on stories of their history and magic. It was said that while the male mages were strong, it was the females that wielded the most mage power. An Outland woman was very valuable to many warlords and it was all too common for slavers to sneak over the border and kidnap as many Outland women as they could get their hands on. They sold them in Lieft, at secret auctions, selling the powerful as slave-mages and those without power as pleasure slaves. Outland women were famed for their exotic beauty. This is how Kaoru Kamiya became slave-mage to the vicious warlord, Takeda Kanryu. She shuddered at the thought of him, absentmindedly raising her hand to her throat where the Collar had been.

Once the slavers had the Outland women in their possession, they Collared their powerful captives. The Collar was a wide leather band covered in Outland runes that, when fastened around a woman's throat, bound her power until her master had need of it. Then, it was loosened so she could carry out her magical task, and then tightened again, rendering her powerless. It was never removed, for the masters' protection. There were many stories of the early days, when masters removed their slave-mages' Collars and they escaped. Killing their masters and those party to their enslavement, they died of magical shock, using too much power too soon and their bodies had become unused to channeling so much power. Thus began the practice of merely loosening the Collars while the necessary magic was being performed. Kanryu had delighted in telling her the bloody tales during the three day ride from the border to his holdings as he lounged on a velvet cushions in the carriage and a bound and gagged (and Collared) Kaoru sat at his feet. That had been ten years ago, when she had been a young girl of fourteen; beaten, terrified, and so very far from home.

A large wagon filled with pumpkins and squashes rattled by, the noise and dust of its passing jolting Kaoru out of her memories. She pulled the hood of her black cloak down low, to hide her face and her blue eyes. When she entered the large town, it was bustling. It looked like she had arrived on a market day, and after some wandering, she found herself in the business quarter.

Shops with brightly painted signs and awnings lined the busy street. A steady flow of pedestrians, wagons, and carriages choked the dirt thoroughfare. She continued on, trying to blend in with the townspeople and trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible. Kaoru followed the flow of shoppers and merchants and families for several blocks until the street opened up into a large square, occupied by the tents and stalls of an open-air market. Her stomach growled, reminding her rather firmly that it had been two days since she had last eaten something (denying her food was an easy punishment for some imagined slight). Cursing her lack of money, she resolved to only take enough food to take the edge off of her hunger. Just as she began following the delectable aroma of baking bread and grilling meat, shouts cut through the afternoon air.

"There she is! Get her!" The shouts of two of Kanryu's right hand men cut through the din of the marketplace. The Hiruma brothers, Gohei and Kihei, were two men she tried furiously to avoid at the holding…and now they were after her. It was time to run. She'd be thrice-damned before she let them put that hellish Collar around her neck. She would die first. She whirled around and ran as fast as she could into the crowded marketplace. After several minutes of running and dodging around stalls, she hazarded a look back. That split second of inattention cost her, she crashed into someone in front of a stall selling ribbons and jewelry. Kaoru vaguely acknowledged the firm, lean body she landed on, screwing her eyes shut before the impact.

When she opened them, the first thing she saw was a bright fall of red-gold hair. The person she was sprawled upon was a man; a rather handsome man. With beautiful red hair and a curious cross-shaped scar on his cheek. She raised her head and looked into his eyes. Ocean blue eyes locked with curious violet ones as she realized that in the fall, her hood had fallen back, exposing her black hair and blue eyes.

"Oh gods!" She gasped, yanking the hood back down over her head. "I'm sorry, so sorry...please forgive…"She muttered as she struggled up and off of the startled red-haired man. She looked back at him as he sat on in the dirt, staring at her.

"Blue…blue eyes…" he murmured, moving to get up.

"We've got you now, Outlander bitch!" Kihei screamed as he and Gohei reached the stall, breaking the spell. They were too close! With blue eyes wide with terror, she turned and ran again, panic fueling her flight. In her rush to escape them, she never saw the man curious violet eyes shade into hard amber as he got up and began to follow the three. She never noticed the sword at his waist.

He watched the young women dash away into the crowd as if the hounds of hell where on her heels, and he thought, it was probably true. _Blue eyes,_ he mused, _Outlander. _ He carefully followed them, staying far enough back that he wouldn't attract attention. When they had collided, he'd places a bit of his magic on her cloak, so he could find her. Easily dodging through the crush of shoppers, he affected a look of nonchalance. While he walked, he thought. He knew only one other Outlander, and he was eager to help the frightened woman. He had been enslaved as a child, and understood their plight, Outland women especially. He was no stranger to the injustices heaped upon them. Kenshin was determined to help her find her freedom.

The stalls and throng of people began to thin, and soon he was in the practically deserted warehouse district. Evening was falling, making the empty area shadowed and slightly eerie. He stopped walking and closed his eyes, sending out tendrils of magic and trying to detect the magical mark he had placed on the runaway woman. He had just located the tiny pulse of his power when a terrified shriek split the air, and he bolted in its direction. Hand on the hilt of his sword he ran, hoping to the gods that he wasn't too late. He dodged the very few pedestrians absently, intensely focused on following the pulse of magic that would lead him to her and the men. Kenshin rounded a corner into an alley and found the larger of the two men viciously kicking the blue-eyed woman in the ribs. The older, shorter one cradled an obviously injured arm.

"You bitch! You deserve this and worse for my brother's arm!" The big one snarled as he readied himself to drive his boot into her stomach again. He was stopped by a voice.

"It is in your best interest to leave the woman alone," Kenshin said, the anger in his voice almost palpable. The men turned, focusing their attention on the man that had interrupted their 'recovery' of the Outland woman.

They had caught her in the warehouse district, Kihei had practically shoved her into an alleyway between two of the larger buildings. He hauled her up by the arm and backhanded her across the face. Kaoru bit back a cry as she staggered back, trying to distance herself from the brothers. They alley was a dead end, and she found herself pressed up against the wall as she went on the offensive. Kihei came at her again with a sick grin on his face. She let him come close enough before knocking him back with an open handed strike to the shoulder. He magic was only just set free, it was still too unstable for her to use safely. The sick crunch of dislocation echoed in the space between the warehouses. Kihei grunted in pain and motioned to Gohei, who surged forward as his older brother fell back.

Kaoru tried in vain to get around the huge bearded man, but he was much too fast for the exhausted woman. He punched her in the face and sent her to the ground, where she stared up at the evening sky dazedly. So caught up with trying to pull herself together, she didn't see Gohei's boot until it was buried in her side. A rib snapped and she screamed, hoping that someone would hear and come to her aid. He kicked her again. She curled into a tight ball, showing him her back.

"You bitch! You deserve so much worse for my brother's arm!" Gohei raged, kicking her in the head. The last thing she heard was a stranger's angry voice before the darkness took her.

When she surfaced again, it was all over. The stench of spilled blood blanketed the alley and her stomach rolled. Her vision was blurry and her head spun, she hardly noticed when arms wrapped around her and lifted her up.

"Wha-,' Kaoru mumbled, trying to find the brothers, confused as to what had happened while she had been unconscious. He turned her head and saw a Gohei-sized lump in the dust, but a gentle jostle disrupted her attempted investigation.

"Please don't look, miss." A soft, carefully modulated voice emanated from the person carrying her out of the alley. A man, it sounded like. She pressed her eyes closed as a vicious wave of dizziness crashed over her. A soft moan escaping her as the pain from her injuries assailed her.

The young woman was no stranger to pain; at Kanryu's holding beatings and corporal punishment were common methods of control. Barely a day would go by without some new bruise or wound. Even though pain and exhaustion were her close companions, it never got easier. The man carrying her was gentle, and his gait was smooth. She was sure now that it wasn't one of Kanryu's men, none of them would treat her with such care. To them, she was a tool to be used.

It had been so long since she had been treated kindly. Head spinning, she kept her eyes shut. Tears of relief, pain, and fatigue slipped down her face as she unconsciously rested her aching head against the man's chest. Kaoru didn't know this person. She didn't know what he looked like, what his name was, or even the color of his eyes. She also didn't know where he was taking her, or what was going to happen; but there was one thing she could feel in her bones. She was safe with him, and no matter what happened next she could carry that feeling with her for the rest of her life. Relaxing, she rested her hand on the hand on her arm. She opened her eyes and winced at the evening light. It wasn't bright, but the young woman had no doubt that she had a concussion. Gazing dazedly up at her rescuers face, she whispered her heartfelt thanks before slipping back into the darkness.


End file.
